1 The Light Obscured

by Fog

The year was 1980. The turbulent decade of the 70s had come to an end, but Dale and Patti
Duerksen still felt its effects. They had come home from their first foreign mission experience
with mixed feelings, some euphoric and some disillusioned. They had seen a lot of new and
interesting places, had made many new friends, and had some thrilling experiences, but by the
time they decided to ask for a permanent return to their homeland, they felt that their service had
produced very little effect on the great task of taking the gospel to all the world. It seemed that
the work that had been assigned to them did nothing more than attempt to maintain the status
quo. Maybe with some more preparation and experience they could do a better job the next time
around. Yes, they did anticipate that there would be a next time some day.
But then a scandal rocked the church, and also the controversial teachings of a prominent
college professor threatened to split the church apart. Adding fuel to the fire there appeared an
expos that claimed Ellen White had borrowed extensively from other authors in the
preparation of some of her books, such as The Desire of Ages, and many church members were
reading and discussing a new critical book in circulation called The White Lie. It had been a
perplexing time, but now as a new decade was beginning, the Duerksens hoped that it would
bring a new birth to their beloved church.
Patti and Dale frequently shared with each other their concerns and hopes for the future.
Obviously no transcript of their exact conversations exists, but enough is known regarding what
they talked about to reconstruct their conversations in a reasonable fashion, and for convenience
well present the substance of their conversations in the form of a montage as though it were all
part of a single discussion back in 1980.

Dale: This is the most satisfying job Ive had since I finished my med tech course. A new
hospital with a lab thats set up just the way I want it, a good salary and good working conditions
what more could I ask for? And I like living here in Columbia [Louisiana]. It seems like
everybody knows everybody in a little town like this, and the people are all so friendly. And yet,
Patti, deep down inside I feel like this isnt really what we were preparing ourselves for.
Patti: Yes, I feel the same way. I like the people I work with, and I enjoy being the assistant
director of nurses. I know I help a lot of people in my work here, but I also know that if this new
hospital had not been built, the people would just keep on driving over to another nearby city for
their medical attention. It seems like this hospital is more of a convenience than a necessity. I
cant forget that during my nurses training I told everybody that I wanted to learn everything I
needed to know to become a missionary nurse.
Dale: I remember at your graduation, they told the audience three times that one member
of the class was going to go overseas to be a missionary nurse. I was so surprised that those
instructors in a secular institution would be so impressed by a student wanting to be a
missionary.
Patti: Right. And it was so clearly evident that Gods hand was at work in my training. In
fact, they should not have even accepted me in the school of nursing, because I didnt meet
several of the requirements for entrance. I will always believe that it must have been the Holy
Spirit working on the hearts of those ladies that impressed them to give me a chance to try the
course anyway. And Ill never forget the day the director told me that they never regretted that
decision, because I never disappointed them. But now I dont know how were ever going to
fulfill that dream, since it looks like the church has stopped sending missionaries to the kind of
pioneering projects we envisioned.
Dale: Well, we asked for Gods guidance when we were offered these jobs here in
Columbia, and it certainly looked like divine providence opened the doors for us to come here. It
would have been a different story if we had been out looking for a new job, but we werent. You
know, the way the offer came our way, totally unsolicited and unexpected, we could hardly
avoid wondering if God was trying to tell us something, and when we got the sign we asked for,
that settled it. But still something doesnt seem to fit quite right. Well never even begin to take
the gospel to all the world by just settling down in our homeland.
Patti: Yes, that seems to be the story of our life, full of ups and downs. Something happens
thats so unusual and impressive that were sure it had to be God at work, but then something
else happens that doesnt seem to be consistent with Gods leading and doesnt make sense at all.
Like when we got our call to go to Bolivia. We told them I was pregnant and it would be better
for us to wait until the baby was born, but no, they insisted this call was so urgent we had to go
as soon as possible. So we tried to comply, but when you went to the Bureau of Vital Statistics to
get a copy of your birth certificate so that you could apply for a passport, they informed you that
they had no record of your birth.
Dale: That was quite a shocking revelation. My sister told me that I was born at home, but
I had no idea that nobody bothered to record such an important event!
Patti: I was secretly kind of pleased, because I figured this obstacle would probably delay
everything enough so that our last baby would be born here in the States. But you valiantly did
everything you could to try to meet the schedule. You thought it would take too long to process
an application for a delayed birth certificate, so you investigated the possibility of getting a
passport on the basis of other documentation to prove citizenship.
Dale: Yes, I heard that occasionally that is done, but it didnt work for me. All my efforts
were in vain.
Patti: As I recall, it was just a week before we were supposed to leave for the mission field
that you gave up trying to find a shortcut to a passport, so you finally submitted an application
for a delayed birth certificate, and we told the Lord that if He wanted us to go on the scheduled
date, He would have to take over and work it out, for we didnt know what else we could do. It
still amazes me that your birth certificate arrived by special delivery mail just a few days later,
and your passport was processed super fast, and we were all on that plane together flying out of
Los Angeles right on schedule. Fantastic!
Dale: Maybe marvelous providence would be a better term to use, Dear.
Patti: Whatever. Then when we landed in Peru where we had to spend three months in
Lima studying Spanish before going on to Bolivia, there was no sign of any urgency over there.
So why did we have to rush down there anyway?
Dale: Thats the big unanswered question.
Patti: My due date came right at the end of our language study. Of course we were still far
from being fluent in Spanish, but I had to go find a doctor I couldnt talk to who would deliver
my baby. It was terrible! Im glad Ill never have to do that again.
Dale: Yes, Sweetheart, I know it was very hard on you, and I didnt like it either. I
remember I had to go get the birth certificate for little Bonnie Ruth, and of course it said she was
born in Peru. And then I learned that since our new baby wasnt included on your passport as
the other children were, she would have to have her own Peruvian passport to leave the country
to go to Bolivia with us. I didnt like that at all. I wanted my little girl to be an American, not a
Peruvian.
Patti: Of course later we found out that she would have U. S. citizenship too, so eventually
it all turned out OK.
Dale: But I still wonder why the Lord let things work out that way. If the brethren had just
had enough patience to let us delay our departure about four months, Bonnie would have been
on your passport along with the rest of the kids right from the start, and everything would have
been much simpler.
Patti: Maybe so. But we should probably keep in mind that the Bible tells us that God
works for the good of those He calls according to His purpose. 1 If we keep looking for the
purpose, eventually well probably see it more clearly than we do right now.
Dale: You must be rightas you usually are. In fact, as I look back I can now recognize
more of the ways the Lord was preparing us for mission service. For instance, when we moved
to Paradise [California], we got acquainted with missionary Ana Stahl who had retired there to
be close to her children. Since we had applied for mission service, we were eager to hear all we
could about foreign missions, and we learned that she and her husband had started their work in
the highlands of Bolivia and later moved to the jungle region of Peru. This sparked our interest
in that part of the world, and I think it was more than mere coincidence that just a year later we
got our call to Bolivia, the same place where the Stahls began their work.
Patti: You know what really sticks in my mind about Mama Stahl? It was the time she
chided me for having my children so close together. I thought that was none of her business! But
I didnt let her remarks bother me very long, and now Im convinced she wasnt quite right about
that, because Becky and Betsy had so much fun growing up together, and it was precisely
because they were so close to the same age. Remember when they were in college together how
they loved to pretend they were twinsand they did look a lot alike. They were so pleased
whenever they managed to dupe someone into believing that they actually were twins.
Dale: And they wouldnt have had their double wedding if they hadnt been so close
together. Boy, we saved big bucks on that one. Two marriages for the price of one!
Patti: Only a man would look at it that way. I just feel so blessed that our girls had the
opportunity to get acquainted with such great guys down there in the mission field. Im so
grateful to the Gates family for providing their oldest son David for our oldest daughter and to
the Burgdorffs for providing their second son for our second daughter. Wasnt that neat how
that worked out?
Dale: Yeah, it sure was. And now I feel so fortunate to have Ted here working with me in
the lab, and Im sure you feel the same way about working with Betsy in nursing.
Patti: Yes, I certainly do. Its wonderful to be able to reminisce with them about our
adventures in Bolivia and share our hopes for the future.
Dale: I wonder what the future holds. Remember how we used to go to the Young
Peoples Meetings and repeat the aim, The gospel to all the world in this generation, and then
with stars in our eyes we went to Bolivia to help make it happen. Statistical reports of the
mission would trumpet the large number of baptisms our mission had, sometimes leading the
whole world, but it seemed to me that all we were doing was just building up the work that was

1
See Romans 8:28.
already established. Moving on into new areas was hardly ever being done.
Patti: But dont forget that there was impressive medical work going on in that mission,
and Sister White spoke of the medical missionary work as being the opening wedge for our
evangelistic work.2 I loved to go down to our Chulumani Hospital and follow Dr. Schwisow
around as he visited his patients, and when we spent a whole week with the Markers on the
medical launch floating down the Mamor River, that was so much fun too. That van that we
called The Rolling Clinic that traveled around the altiplano bringing health care to the sick
campesinos was also impressive. Then there was that new hospital in Guayaramerin on the
Brazilian borderat least it was new for uswhich the Bolivian government turned over to us to
operate on a 30-year contract. And then Dionisio found another hospital that was available to us.
Remember that?
Dale: How could I forget! It still pains me to think about it. Dionisio came into my office
so excited that day to tell me about his trip to Cobija. I knew that was the principal city of the
northern jungle area known as Pando, but I had never been there since we had no work going on
there for me to visit. He eagerly told me that he went there to do Ingathering, so first of all he
looked up the mayor and told him about all the medical work we were doing in Bolivia, ending
with the account of the contract the government gave us to operate the Guayaramerin Hospital.
The mayor smiled and said, Well, we have a hospital building sitting empty at the edge of our
town, because we cant find anybody to staff it. Why dont you ask your church to come take
over our hospital for us too? When I heard that, I just smiled and told Dionisio that we already
had our hands full with medical work, and there was no way we could take on any more
obligations.
Patti: What was so painful about that?
Dale: It was what happened afterward that was painful. It seemed like God was trying to
tell us something by the events that followed in rapid succession. Shortly after my visit with
Dionisio, some rabble-rousers in Guayaramerin stirred up the populace against the Adventists,
and the people then pressured the government to rescind the contract and take back the
operation of the hospital. Then Brother Marker had to return to his homeland, and we couldnt
find anybody to take his place on the medical launch, so it was sold. Next Brother Steger took his
family back home to Argentina, and that left nobody to operate the rolling clinic, so the van was
sold too. And then to top it all off, there was a revolution in the country, and the new
government didnt like the contract that the former government had signed with the Adventists
for the operation of the Chulumani Hospital, so they simply annulled that document and took
over this hospital that the Adventists had been running for over 30 years. It seemed like God was
trying to tell us, If you think you cant enter a new area to start new work because your hands are full, Ill
empty your hands so you wont have any excuse. Within two years there wasnt any Adventist
medical missionary work left in Boliviaand it was all my fault!
Patti: Honey, dont blame yourself. You were telling the truth when you said our hands
were full. There was no room in the budget for anything else, and we all know it takes a lot of
money to start up a new hospital.
Dale: True. But something doesnt seem to quite add up right. Ive heard preachers quote
Scripture that has God saying that the cattle on a thousand hills belong to Him, 3 and He even
claims that all the silver and the gold is His as well, 4 so how can Gods work in the earth be
crippled by a lack of funds? Yet it seems like funding is always the biggest problem.
Patti: I know what you mean. Here we are, wanting to do what we can to hasten the

2
Found in General Conference Bulletin, 1903, number 4, p. 7.
3
See Psalm 50:10.
4
See Haggai 2:8
coming of Jesus by taking the gospel to all the world, 5 so wed like to participate in a new
pioneering project somewhere, but the church wont send us, because theres no budget available
for a project like that. Surely Jesus must want to come back even more than we want Him to
come, and He must know a lot better than we do how His work can be accomplished. I have
been reading in The Desire of Ages about Jesus sending out His disciples on a missionary tour, and
He sent them out without a salary or any other financial support, yet when they returned He
asked them if they had lacked anything they needed, and they admitted that they hadnt. Then
Ellen White makes some fantastic promises as she applies the principles of Christs method to our
day. Maybe we should try going out to fulfill our dream the same way Jesus sent out His
disciples.
Dale: That sounds almost too scary to even think about. Besides, after what we read in
that book The White Lie where the author makes it sound like Ellen White was just a fraud who
copied from other authors most of what she wrote, how can we be sure if she is telling us the
truth?
Patti: I like Sister Whites writings. They inspire me, and I dont like what the critics are
saying about her.
Dale: I agree, and I dont think the issue of her inspiration will ever be resolved by
argument. After all, Joels prophecy says that in the last days Gods Spirit will be poured out on
ALL flesh,6 so we cant limit the application to just one woman and claim that is the complete
fulfillment of the prophecy. If the Holy Spirit guided her in copying statements that He had
previously impressed other authors to write, then those statements should still be just as valid
and useful, regardless of who said them first. It appears to me that the only question should be,
Are all those fantastic promises, not only in her writings but in the Bible as well, trustworthy?
Im beginning to think that the only way to ever know for sure will be to apply the acid test, to
find out by personal experience whether these things are so.
Patti: I like that idea. Lets do a study to collect all the instructions and promises we want
to test, and then lets go for it.
Dale: Well have to be careful not to presume God will do things for us that He never
actually promised to do, for that would bewellpresump-tion!
Patti: And we should also avoid trying to do the things God wants to do for us and which
we probably cant do adequately for ourselves, because that would probably be an exercise in
futility.
Dale: Lets make this the focus of our personal devotions, and when we find something
that seems very fitting we can copy it onto a 3X5 card, and then when we think we have studied
the subject long enough, we can get together with all our cards and share with each other what
weve found.
Patti: I bet Ted and Betsy would like to work on this study with us. Lets go talk to them
about it this evening.
Dale: Good idea. Yes, lets do that.

5
See 2 Peter 3:12 and Matthew 24:14.
6
See Joel 2:28.